


Strawberry Swing

by BritishEarper



Category: The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: A Little Bit of Angst at the beginning, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff, Introspection, Nature, Summer Love, toni x sand is my otp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29756112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishEarper/pseuds/BritishEarper
Summary: It was quiet. Shelby leaned back so that they lay on their backs next to one another, flattened grass bending and contorting to the shapes of their bodies. They observed the passing of time in the deep blue Texas sky. The clouds looked like cotton balls huddled together, and Shelby was distantly reminded of cartoon sheep. Their hands found one another.orA high school/summer AU where Toni and Shelby are emotionally well-adjusted cause I can't write angst
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind & Toni Shalifoe, Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	Strawberry Swing

Shelby swallowed and traced her finger over the words on the page. They were a shadow, dark grey against yellow, and she sounded them out first in her head. Her tongue was thick in her mouth. She blinked hard once, twice. She was in class, and had been asked to read out loud. She forced her right hand to still; it had been picking mindlessly at her thigh.

She shook her head twice before walking out of the class with a quiet “Sorry”. The classmates’ eyes followed her through the glass in the door. She felt their eyes on her even as she walked into the bathroom. The hallway was a shell of itself, empty.

In the corner of the class, Toni had been sitting reclined. She held an eye over Shelby. She was also writing her notes. Toni smiled, _and they said I couldn’t multitask._ At Shelby’s leaving, she sat up quietly and offered to check up on Shelby. She found her in the bathrooms. She was washing her hands.

“Shelby? How are you feeling?” She leaned against the white tiling of the bathroom. The tiles were cold against her head. Shelby’s head raised quickly.  
“I’m fine! Really. I just- needed a minute.” Toni raised an eyebrow and shifted her weight to her other leg. She noted that Shelby’s eyes were red and her smile was very wide.  
“If you want to, I can take you home?” She had brought both of their bags with her. They lay slumped against the sticky bathroom floor.  
She nodded quickly. “I’d like that.” She let out a sigh, and darted her eyes up to Toni’s and held them for a second.

Toni was sitting on a chair in her bedroom, and Shelby was lying against the headrest of the bed. They had been friends for a couple of years, and this was the first time Toni had been in the Goodkind’s house. It was very quiet in her bedroom even as cars passed by the window, as though the sounds muffled themselves within the confines of her room. It felt like their own personal bubble. The lining of Shelby’s blouse was traced by her nervous fingers as she spoke. The movement calmed down her brain.

“I don’t need- like, I’m so glad you helped, but this was just a blip, you know? Can we just- not talk about this?”

Toni nodded. The conversation stilled as they both looked around her bedroom. 

“So-” Shelby started.  
“So, I need to go soon.” Toni gestured towards the open door.  
“Oh. Right.”  
Something in Shelby’s face made her say, “I mean, I’m not doing anything tomorrow. I have to get back for basketball practice today. Unless you are doing something tomorrow? God, that sounded presumptuous.”

Shelby blushed and agreed that they should meet up.

The next day, they set up camp in the fields. They were surrounded by foot-long grass, and they were about a twenty minute walk from Shelby’s house. The grass was dry and yellow, and Shelby cradled the tips of it in her hands so as to not look at Toni. It tickled against her bare legs. It was smooth, but bent far too easily. Some of it crumbled in her hands from lack of water. They had brought themselves some snacks from the Goodkind household in a rucksack.

“What do you want to talk about?” Shelby asked. 

“I don’t know.” Toni had already made herself at home, lying on the bent, dying grass. The wind whistled quietly, tossed her dark, wild hair to and fro. Shelby sat stiffly.

It was quiet. Shelby leaned back so that they lay on their backs next to one another, flattened grass bending and contorting to the shapes of their bodies. They observed the passing of time in the deep blue Texas sky. The clouds looked like cotton balls huddled together, and Shelby was distantly reminded of cartoon sheep. Their hands found one another.

“I’m glad we’re friends.” Toni said. She had placed her other arm over her eyes to shield herself from the sun, but at this her head turned to watch her. Shelby sunk into the ground a little with each word. Her muscles relaxed, and she wanted to turn around to face her, watch her breathe a little before the grass got too scratchy. She stayed as she was. Their hands grew clammy but stayed together.  
“Me too.”  
They laid back and kept on watching.

At some point, they had migrated to Shelby’s backyard and sat on the swings. Over their years of friendship, they had managed to perfect their swings so that their arcs aligned quickly. The air moved to greet them, and Toni saw the flowers dance in the breeze as they talked. She loved that first feeling of weightlessness that came with getting up real high. The inherent risk and danger made it all the better.

The grass shifted back and forth, as though settling down. Gradually, their swings slowed as the sun set and they grew tired. Soon all that was left was their low voices in the light of the sunset. Their figures huddled together against the backdrop of it. The tips of Toni’s shoes traced the dry earth under the swings. Eventually the conversation, too, gave way, and Toni drove home to her house with a hug and a ‘thanks, see you!’. Shelby wondered what would have happened had she invited Toni over to stay the night.

This field meet-up became weekly, then twice weekly, then daily as the summer started. The earth began to warm up as time went on, and soon there was a quiet hum of insects in the air. 

In August, the sun was at its highest and the crickets were chirping off in the distance. They were both wearing Shelby’s sunglasses.  
“Did you know it’s only the males who chirp?”  
Shelby leaned up on her forearms from her position in the grass to look at Toni.  
“No, how do you know that?”  
“Nora.”  
Ah. Shelby nodded her head. That...made a lot more sense than Toni herself reading it somewhere. She tried to imagine Toni wearing thick glasses, reading some thick, dull non-fiction book, and began to laugh.

“What?”  
She shook her head. “I was imagining you reading a nonfiction book for fun.” Toni whacked her head softly with the palm of her hand and grinned.  
“Shut up.” She sat up and stretched from her previous position of lying down to get her blood flowing again. She was wearing a tank top, and Shelby followed the creases in her back with focused eyes. “You know I read, right?” Toni’s voice was a little insecure, and all Shelby could see of her was her back, now bent over.  
“Yeah, I know.” 

They had brought Mrs Goodkind’s famous lemonade, and they sat up sipping it, leaning against one another, feeling their teeth all coated in sugar. They soaked up the warmth of the sun in silence.

“I don’t want these days to end.” Shelby’s voice was low, almost whispering. Toni whispered back “Me neither.” Her voice was serious. She leaned her head against Shelby’s shoulder.  
She felt Toni’s hot breath against her shoulder. “But that’s good, cause it means these moments have worth.” 

The next day, they walked down to the lake by her house instead. The sun casted a faded sepia tone on them. As they walked down the fields, Toni told her what all of the bird calls were. Martha had given her a book of bird calls for her thirteenth birthday; Shelby had once walked in on Toni in the public library poring over the colourful, sleek pages. Her eyes had been bright with a passion she had not seen since then, and she had not responded to Shelby when she sat next to her. 

“Why do you like birds?”  
Toni walked a little further ahead of her, and Shelby ran a little to catch up. There was a short pause as Toni thought. She had a loose braid in, and looked very relaxed. Shelby ran her fingers over the flowers on the side of the road as they walked past. She realised quietly that this was one of those memories that she would grow to treasure, like that moment on the swing.

“I think it’s their freedom. And the fact that they’re so pure. Like, no matter what shit we’ve pumped into the world, they just keep on singing.”

They walked in peaceful silence for another fifteen minutes before reaching the beach. The sand was grey and there was lots of dirt and grass on the ground. There was no one else, which made sense given how far away the Goodkind household was from both the town and city centre, but was a very appreciated fact anyways.

Shelby waded into the water, ran her fingers through it. Toni watched from afar, a small black-and-white smudge on the beach. She was wearing a black basketball tank top and shorts. Shelby had had a loose-fitting white blouse that she discarded as she ran into the water. Toni was now wearing said blouse. Her body was almost swallowed by it given their size difference.

“You're not coming in?” She felt the sand run through her toes from the bottom of the lake. The coarse grains dug in a little as she waded out. Close to the shore, the sand grains were finer; being exposed to both the lapping waves and the air had worn them down, but further out the particles were untouched by the air and surface currents.

The bottom of her t-shirt clung wetly to her hips and began to float as she walked back further out. There were waves, but they were small. Her toes tingled with chill.  
“Nah, I’m good here.” Toni said as she pulled out a book. 

Shelby held her head under the water to clear it. The white noise filled up her senses, and the water was shocking in its coldness. She tried to hear the small murmurs water made, the small currents and disturbances that made for any discernible difference in the sound of the lake, but all she heard was the rhythm of waves lapping above her. She went up to the surface every so often, and found that she enjoyed the way the water passed over her more when she swam laps under the surface.

Toni lay back and watched Shelby swim. Her head bobbed up and down, and she was quietly splashing with her feet. The blouse Toni was wearing was so soft, and the sun was so warm, so she found herself beginning to drift. Her mind filled with emptiness, and she felt her emotions soften pleasantly. She kept reading the book and reached down to feel the sand; she felt the sun-kissed grains rush through her left hand as her right flicked to the next page, book cradled against her thighs. She leaned against the large smooth rock behind her.

Eventually, though, the cold reached Shelby (as did the loneliness), and she towelled off on the beach. Her head sounded strange, filled to the brim with new life. The birds sounded crisp and clear. Toni was looking very sleepy (adorable) and running some sand through her hand. Shelby could see that Toni’s eyes were travelling slower and slower across the page as time went past. The sun came back out and they looked at one another. 

“Hey.” Shelby said.  
“You’re back.” Toni said. She put down the sand and book, rubbed her eyes and grinned. Shelby almost expected her to start stretching like a cat or something.  
“Yeah.” Shelby said. They both smiled.

That night, Shelby lay on her back in the dark of her bedroom. Her window was open, and warm air came in from it. She turned her head to face it, and saw the stars that had come out. There was a quiet hum of cars passing, isolated lives passing hers in the blink of an eye. Shelby’s breaths were loud in the quiet of the bedroom. She felt her chest rise and fall, felt her heart pump, giving energy to her organs. 

She closed her eyes and dreamed.

**Author's Note:**

> The fic is almost entirely based on the song Strawberry Swing by Coldplay. If you haven't heard it, you definitely should.  
> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a kudos or comment if you want to, they are very appreciated :)  
> If anyone's wondering, Toni/Regan never happened, nor did Shelby/Becca.


End file.
